School's Out Forever!

The "Prophet" pulled the FLDS children out of the public schools in 2000 so that they wouldn't have to associate with the "apostates".   This move led to the closure of the elementary school in Hildale.   However, tax dollars were still being paid to support non-existent students.   The Colorado City School District fell into financial ruin and was under investigation for their spending habits, such as buying a Cessna airplane.   Teachers' paychecks started bouncing. FINALLY the government did something about the situation and put the school district into receivership. Read about the school system fiasco in the articles below.   These news articles are listed in chronological order.

Polygamists' move imperils school funds

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 4, 2000

Flagstaff - Polygamist church leaders in Colorado City have ordered their nearly 8,000 followers to cut all ties with the town's public schools and to teach their children at home, leaving the Arizona-Utah border community's school year in doubt.   Deloy Bateman, a high school science teacher, said Thursday that a majority of his fellow teachers already have resigned following the pronouncement by Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. School is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.   About 1,000 students attend public school in Colorado City, and an additional 300 attend another public school in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   The move, announced late last month, was the latest by church leaders to further isolate the remote, secretive community, where some men have up to 15 wives.     Read more

School Funds in Danger After Ruling

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published August 4, 2000

PHOENIX (AP) -- Nearly 8,000 followers of a polygamist church in an isolated community near the Utah state line have been ordered to teach their children at home, putting the school year in doubt.   Deloy Bateman, a high school science teacher in Colorado City, said many teachers have resigned following the pronouncement by Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   "Even if the school stays open, the religious leadership will likely turn up the psychological pressure on all others to leave town," said Bateman, who left the church three years ago and has taught at the high school for 17 years.   School is scheduled to begin Aug. 22.  About 1,000 students attend public school in Colorado City and another 300 attend public school in neighboring Hildale, Utah.   Colorado City Mayor Dan Barlow said public schooling would continue and he didn't anticipate problems in hiring competent teachers.     Read more

Grade school remains open despite patriarch's pull-out decree

The Associated Press Originally published August 22, 2000

HILDALE, Utah - First-year Principal Max Tolman was pleasantly surprised when 94 students showed up for the first day of classes Monday at Phelps Elementary in Hildale.   Last year the school had nearly 250 students.   However, in July the leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Warren Jeffs, told followers to stop associating with apostates and outsiders and pull their children from public schools.   Most of the families in Hildale and neighboring Colorado City, Ariz., are polygamists and most are members of Jeffs' FLDS sect.   Neither Tolman nor Rex Wilkey, Washington County School District assistant superintendent for elementary schools, would speculate on the religious beliefs of the students at Phelps this year although Wilkey said he recognized a few kids from last year. Read more

Low turnout causes delay for Colorado City schools

Religion forbidding public education

Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 23, 2000

School officials in Colorado City have delayed starting the fall semester for a week as they plan for the withdrawal of hundreds of students by polygamous religious families.   Public schools in the town on the Arizona-Utah line had been scheduled to start Tuesday but have been pushed back until next Monday as the school tries to address an attrition of teachers and students.   "There have been a number of community meetings and discussion about what to do next," said Mike File, Mohave County's school superintendent in Kingman.   More than 1,000 students attended schools in Colorado City during the last school year, and File said school officials estimate that between 450 and 500 students will be on hand next week when classes begin.   Leaders of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who broke from the mainstream Mormon Church in the late 1800s over the question of multiple wives, demanded in late July that all its congregation school their children at home or in private schools sanctioned by the church.  The church also told its followers to quit dealing with outsiders who don't believe in the religion.   Only 94 students turned out for the first day of classes Monday at Phelps Elementary School in neighboring Hildale, Utah, Principal Max Tolman said.  The school had nearly 250 students last year. Read more

Polygamous families empty public schools

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published August 29, 2000

COLORADO CITY - He'd had a month to prepare since polygamous religious leaders declared public schools the bane of this insular, isolated town of hotel-sized houses, frontier dresses and ponytails.  But Colorado City Superintendent Alvin Barlow said there's only so much you can do to offset the shock on the first day of school when two-thirds of your previous student body, more than 600 students, don't show up.   Like the surreal, deserted corridors.     Read more

Education watched in polygamist town

By Mark Shaffer The Arizona Republic Originally published September 3, 2000

Colorado City - It happened more than two generations ago, but the lesson still resonates among elected officials.   There are no political points to be gained in going after polygamists.  Then-Gov. Howard Pyle and police officers raided this town of men with many wives in 1953, arrested two dozen polygamous patriarchs and then watched in dismay as public opinion favored the women and children left behind. Pyle bitterly acknowledged up to his death that the raid cost him another term in office.   Now, Arizona is facing a different problem with polygamists along the fertile banks of Short Creek, at the foot of towering, pine-studded red cliffs: How to monitor the education of children when the entire town pulls out of the public school system.   Mike File, Mohave County's school superintendent, doesn't know.     Read more

Polygamists pull kids from school

The Associated Press Originally published September 12, 2000

Hundreds of members of a polygamous Mormon splinter group have pulled their children out of the public schools along the Utah-Arizona state line -- preparing, perhaps, for the end of the world.  Only about 350 students have enrolled in the four schools in the desert towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, compared with 1,400 last year.  Dozens of teachers belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have also quit.  They acted at the direction of Warren Jeffs, who speaks on behalf of his aged father, Rulon Jeffs, the church's prophet.  In mid-July, Warren Jeffs ordered followers to take their children out of school and cut off contact with former church members.     Read more

Student Exodus Hits Schools In 2 Towns

By Catherine Gewertz Education Week on the Web Originally published September 13, 2000

Urged by their leader to home-school their children, members of a fundamentalist religious group have withdrawn nearly two-thirds of the students from the public schools in a small district near the Arizona-Utah state line.   Multiple versions of the events in Colorado City, Ariz., over the past six weeks have been offered, but this much is clear: Enrollment in the Colorado City Unified School District's three schools plummeted from 988 last year to 350 this year.  Two-thirds of its 75 teachers and a good portion of its classified staff also declined to return to work this year, Superintendent Alvin Barlow said.   Across the creek and the state line in Hildale, Utah, Phelps Elementary School's enrollment dropped from last year's 220 to 96, and 11 of the 13 teachers resigned, said Principal Max Tolman.   Phelps Elementary and the Colorado City schools serve families of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who settled those towns in polygamous family units decades ago.  The Mormon church, which eschewed the practice of polygamy more than a century ago, disavows any connection to the Arizona sect.   In sermons in late July, the Colorado City church's first counselor, Warren Jeffs, reportedly directed followers to pull their children from the public schools and to minimize contact with those outside the church.     Read more

Closing Ranks Polygamous Sect Pulls Children From Schools

By Oliver Yates Libaw ABC News Originally published September 14, 2000

Hundreds of members of a polygamous Mormon splinter group on the Utah-Arizona border are pulling their children out of the local public school system and severing contact with the outside world.   In Colorado City, Ariz., and neighboring Hildale, Utah, Rulon Jeffs, the aging leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told followers in July to home-school their children and to cut ties completely with non-members and former members.   "There’s a mass exodus," Mike File, the county school superintendent overseeing Colorado City, told ABCNEWS.com.   When classes began on Aug. 22, roughly 350 students enrolled in the school system, compared to 1,400 last year.  Over half the teachers at Colorado City schools belong to the sect and did not return for work, File says.   Turnout was so low at the town’s junior high school, it had to be closed because of a lack of students.    Read more

Strange days in Utah

Why did a Mormon sect take its kids out of school?

By Andrew Murr Newsweek Originally published November 13, 2000

Situated in the remote desert along the Utah-Arizona border, the twin towns of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, are the longtime redoubt of a breakaway Mormon sect that still practices polygamy 110 years after it was banned by the mainstream Mormon Church.   The sect, known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is run by a self-proclaimed prophet and "Mouthpiece of God" named Rulon Jeffs, who is 90 years old and reported to have somewhere between 19 and 60 wives.   (An attorney for Jeffs confirms he has plural wives.)   To followers, Jeffs's words have the force of law, and they paid close attention last July when the prophet's son, Warren Jeffs, told "the Priesthood people" to separate themselves from "the apostates" around them.  In September, the rest of the community found out what Jeffs meant-attendance at local schools suddenly dropped by 75 percent when the sect decided to educate nearly 1,000 children at home.     Read more

For one Mormon teacher, worlds did collide

By Susan Greene Denver Post Originally published March 4, 2001

Colorado City, Ariz. - A mural in DeLoy Bateman's science classroom shows Neil Armstrong landing on the moon.   Such teaching aids are standard in most high schools.  But not here in the hub of Mormon fundamentalism, where such an image can cause a man like Bateman to lose his religion.   In a community that believes the sun is God's home, Bateman teaches it's a thermonuclear reactor.   To children who think Earth was created 7,000 years ago, he explains it's 4.5 billion years old. His collections of fossils and dinosaur bones blatantly challenge townsfolks' theories about creation.   But it's Bateman's lunar landing mural that most boldly confronts local teachings.   Because church prophet LeRoy Johnson prophesied in 1968 that man would never land on the moon, his followers and their descendants are certain it never happened.     Read more

School in polygamist community is closed

Provo Daily Herald Originally published April 19, 2001

ST. GEORGE (AP) -- Despite efforts of Phelps Elementary administrators, staff members and parents to keep it open, the Washington County School Board has voted unanimously to close the school in the polygamist community of Hildale.   The board took the action Tuesday on the recommendation of Superintendent Kolene Granger and Rex Wilkey, assistant superintendent of elementary education.   Wilkey said the projected enrollment at Phelps for the 2001-2002 school year is only 25.  Current enrollment is 102.   Enrollment fell drastically last fall after Warren Jeffs, a leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, called upon followers to withdraw their children from public schools.   Following the church leader's edict, seven Phelps staffers quit and enrollment dropped from 250 to 94.     Read more

Home schools: Nobody's watching

Parents like 'freedom'; critics want stronger oversight

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published July 1, 2001

Arizona lawmakers have spent years demanding testing and accountability in the public schools.   But at the same time, and with much less fanfare, they've been killing laws requiring the same for kids taught at home.   The result: Arizona has no way to gauge the quality of home-schooling.  Supporters, many backed by conservative religious organizations, call that freedom; critics call it irresponsibility.   Today, any parent who fills out a notarized one-page form is free to pull kids out of school and teach them at home.  It's unlikely that anyone will notice what or whether these children are learning.   But many home-schoolers say that's exactly as it should be: Because it costs no tax money, it's no one's business.  "The best laws are the ones that give parents the maximum freedom to choose the best education for their child," said attorney Darren Jones of the national Home School Legal Defense Association.  Jones names Arizona one of the 10 least-restrictive states for home-schoolers.     Read more

Hildale school will go private

Phelps elementary, closed after FLDS members pulled children from school, to be sold to investors

By Angie Parkinson The Spectrum Originally published October 2, 2002

HILDALE -- Phelps Elementary may once again be filled with the sound of children's voices.  The school building, located on the Utah side of the twin communities of Hildale and Colorado City, has been leased to a group of investors who plan to use the building for a private school.   The halls of the school were emptied after faithful followers of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- the vast majority of Colorado City and Hildale residents -- answered a call from the pulpit in August 2000.   Warren Jeffs, a counselor in the first presidency of the FLDS church, called for faithful members to withdraw from public schools.  After the initial call, enrollment at Phelps fell from 240 the year before to 94 on the first day of the 2000-2001 school year.   The Washington County School Board voted to close the school in April 2001 because of lack of enrollment.   "We would prefer to keep the school open, but we were down to 16 students," said Washington County School District Superintendent Kolene Granger.   The group is going to lease Phelps Elementary with an option to buy at the end of 10 years.   The sale price is $1 million.     Read more

Religious discrimination lives on

By Elizabeth Stohlton BYU NewsNet Originally published December 12, 2002

Some people believe that religious discrimination is a thing of the past, but for two women and their children in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., discrimination still exists.   Former polygamist wives Lenore Holm of Colorado City and Pamela Black of Hildale are speaking out against discrimination and harassment the women say started after they severed ties with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   Now, these women claim their children are being harassed at school, on the bus and in town.   Colorado City and Hildale became home to the FLDS Church and polygamy in the early 1900s.  The polygamists sought refuge in the twin cities after polygamy was outlawed by the federal government and banned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.   The FLDS Church was one organization until 1980, when there was a dispute over church leadership.  It was at this time that the FLDS Church divided into the First Ward and the Second Ward, Holm said.   Several years ago, Rulon Jeffs, former prophet of the First Ward of the FLDS Church until his death earlier this year, asked church members to pull their children out of Phelps Elementary, a public school in Hildale.  Church leaders created a parochial school for children in the First Ward.   Enrollment at the Utah public school dramatically declined after Jeffs' announcement, and children from Arizona were bused to the Utah school in order to keep the school open through the school year.  Shortly after the school year ended, Phelps Elementary School closed because it did not have enough students, Black said.   The next year, Washington County paid the tuition for the remaining Utah children to be bused to Colorado City Elementary School in Arizona, including Black's and Holm's children.   Today, only those not belonging to the FLDS First Ward attend Colorado City Elementary School; however, most of the teachers, administrators and bus drivers at the Arizona school belong to the First Ward.     Read more

Polygamy in Arizona: The Wages of Sin

Arizona polygamist leaders are using public funds to support religious schools and line their own pockets. The state's done nothing to stop them.

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published April 10, 2003

Deloy Bateman begins each school day long before dawn.   He rousts five of his teenage children from bed at 2 a.m. An hour later, the clan arrives at the Colorado City public school.  Soon, a few other kids join the group in Bateman's well-stocked science laboratory.   After two hours of preparation and studying, Bateman begins lectures on the first of a dozen classes he will conduct during the long day.  They include pre-calculus, chemistry, earth science, electronics, plastics, physiology, physics and physical education.   Bateman doesn't work 16 hours a day for the money.  After 20 years of teaching at the Colorado City Unified School District, his salary has risen to only $33,500 a year.   "We are dedicated to helping, plain and simple," he says.  "That little statement pretty much explains my personality."   Ironically, as far as the fanatic polygamist Mormons who control this isolated northern Arizona community are concerned, Bateman may as well be teaching Satanism.   Colorado City, which hugs the Utah border north of the Grand Canyon, is a town where most of the residents don't believe in evolution, dinosaurs or that America sent men to the moon.   It is a place where education beyond the eighth grade is deemed unnecessary by many – particularly for teenage girls who frequently are coerced into polygamous marriages to older men by the time they reach 16.   Bateman and a handful of other dedicated educators fight an astounding array of obstacles to fulfill their duties as public school teachers – chief among them hostile religious discrimination.     Read more

Profits of Polygamy

Arizona launches a probe into alleged improper spending by the Colorado City school district

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published July 10, 2003

The state Auditor General's Office has begun a preliminary investigation into the finances of a polygamist-controlled school district in northern Arizona in the wake of New Times' reports of extravagant and improper spending by the tiny, one-school Colorado City Unified School District.   The auditor general's "special review" could lead to a major investigation of the finances of the school district controlled by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Polygamy is a tenet of the FLDS, which split more than 70 years ago from the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church.   The Auditor General's Office did not return a phone call seeking comment on the investigation, which began after New Times provided auditor general's investigators access to thousands of pages of school district financial records obtained under the state public records law.   The school district discussed the investigation at its June 24 board meeting, according to the meeting agenda. Colorado City officials did not return a phone call seeking comment.   The auditor general's investigation could widen to also include the state Department of Education, which will soon determine whether to launch a separate inquiry into the district's prolific travel expenses, including the purchase of a $220,000 aircraft and the use of district credit cards for personal expenses.     Read more

Colo. City district thriving, thanks to AZ taxpayers

By Al Herron Prescott Daily Courier Originally published Friday, August 8, 2003

Until the year 2000, all of the children in Colorado City, Ariz., attended public schools.  But then the FLDS prophet, Rulon Jeffs, ordered the faithful to stop all contact with heathen and apostates – which meant anybody who is not FLDS. So about 650 children left the 950-student system. Imagine the chaos that resulted from this religious edict.   Even though all the church’s children left, the School Board has remained 100 percent FLDS. Remember this as you read.   Most of the remaining students were from polygamist families also, but they belonged to a smaller, dissenting group called the 2nd Warders – apostates, doomed to hellfire – who live three miles away.   This is a very poor school district, and the board never tried to build its own schools.  Instead, they leased space in buildings owned by the FLDS church.  After the edict in 2000, the district did not need as much space, so even though some leases were paid up for several years in advance, the board relinquished most of it.  Now the church has that space for its schools.   Every negotiation was a sweetheart deal which favored the church at the expense of the taxpayers.   Next, the school board pleaded poverty to the newly created Arizona School Facilities Board. The facilities in Colorado City were indeed bad, so in 2001 the state built them a new $6 million K-12 school, and we taxpayers paid for it.     Read more

Colorado City educators a no-show for meeting

e-Press Tri-State News Network A Production of Murphy Broadcasting, Inc Originally published Monday, February 23, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. – A collection of 12 educators and residents from Colorado City scheduled a meeting with both the Mohave County and State Superintendents Saturday afternoon and didn't show up.  Mohave County Superintendent Mike File received the call and that the Colorado City contingent would not be attending their own meeting.   "After meeting last night to prepare the information that they were going to go over today, several of them received e-mails that the press would be here and then they decided that they just weren't going to come.  Because most of the people that were going to come down were staff members, who were going to share with you the information that they see everyday in the school.  And it became apparent that they felt they would lose their jobs for insubordination or whatever charges would be brought against them.  So they just decided that they weren’t coming," File said.   The reason for the meeting was an attempt by the Colorado City delegation to alter both state and county funding for their schools.     Read more

Colorado City teachers may see 15 percent less pay

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published Friday, May 14, 2004

COLORADO CITY -- Teachers who are devoted not only to teaching but to teaching in the Colorado City Unified School District, may soon be looking elsewhere for employment due to the possibility of a 15 percent cut in pay.   More than 30 teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff and a few residents attended the Colorado City school board meeting Tuesday night to express their concerns to the school board.   Everyone who spoke at the meeting made emotional pleas to the board members, who made few comments.  Their behavior prompted one teacher to call the board members "aloof."   Superintendent Alvin Barlow told those present at the meeting that legislative budget cuts may force the school to take drastic measures to meet the budget this year, one that is still in the planning phase and has yet to be finalized.     Read more

Colorado City raises primary property taxes

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published Wednesday, July 28, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. -- Looking for ways to come up with money for the 2004-2005 school year, the Colorado City Unified School District No. 14 trimmed $100,000 from capital funds but a hefty property tax rate increase is still needed to keep the school running.   In order to help fund the $2.4 million maintenance and operations portion of the school budget, the primary property tax rate will increase from $3.55 to $8.94 adding an extra $5.39 per $100 on assessed property values.   The increase will place the assessed property value at roughly $13 per $100 which will make Colorado City's rate the highest in the county.  Lake Havasu had the highest rate with $9.19 per $100 of the assessed property value.   The tax increase will likely hit hard in a community where there is already a large percentage of residents behind on paying their utility bills.   Although the majority of the people who attended a Monday meeting about the tax increase want what is best for the school children, one woman remarked that she would rather see programs cut than see people forced out of their homes due to the increased property tax rate.   Perhaps some of the hardest hit will be the people who work at the school and pay property taxes.  Wages for staff at the school were cut by 15 percent.   The teachers who left due to the cut in wages will not be replaced, leaving an increased burden on the remaining teachers.     Read more

Colorado City schools tax hike too high

IN OUR VIEW The Spectrum Originally published August 2, 2004

A combination of budget cuts and hefty expenses has prompted a 152 percent property tax increase on the Colorado City School District's portion of property taxes for homes within its boundaries.   At a meeting last week, the school board increased the property taxes from $3.55 per $100 of assessed value to $8.94 per $100.  The funds will help pay for maintenance and operations.   District officials blame Arizona officials, who cut the district's allocation of money because of the rapid decrease in enrollment.  The district had 991 students in the 1999-2000 school year, but after a decree from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for families to pull their children from public schools, enrollment plummeted to 359 students in 2000-01 and has remained about the same since.   To make up the difference, the district has to raise money, and that means taxes have to be raised.   Or do they?   When businesses run short on cash, they make appropriate cuts to expense budgets.     Read more

Polygamists' schools may lose funding

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 19, 2004

A public school system run by the nation's largest polygamous sect in a remote area near the Arizona-Utah line could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds for failing to properly report how it spends its money, officials said Wednesday.   The possible sanction is the latest in a string of political, legal and administrative pressures being brought to bear in three states and Canada against the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and its self-proclaimed prophet, Warren Jeffs.   Maude Haggerty, accounting services director for the Arizona Auditor General's Office, confirmed Wednesday that the Colorado City Unified School District failed to meet the second of two deadlines to properly report spending for fiscal 2003.   The district, which is controlled by the FLDS, could lose up to 10 percent of its annual state funding for failing to comply, Haggerty said.   Any major cutback could be significant because Jeffs has a history of using public jobs to promote loyalty in the twin communities of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah, where most of the sect's 10,000 faithful live.   Colorado City's school district is a prime example.   It has 104 employees and 289 students.  All but a few of the employees are FLDS faithful.   None of the students is a follower of the church.   The nearly 3-1 ratio of students to workers in the Colorado City school system is in contrast to other Arizona districts, where the ratio is typically anywhere from a 10-1 to 25-1.   "It's absurd," said Mike File, Mohave County schools superintendent, who has been critical of Colorado City's operations for years.  "It's about time someone did something about this."     Read more

Polygamous school district under scrutiny

By Mike Watkiss KTVK News Channel 3 - Phoenix Originally published Thursday, August 19, 2004

The school district in Arizona's largest polygamous community, Colorado City, has missed a second deadline to file necessary financial papers with state auditors.   Records of the district's finances for 2003 were due in March.   The district failed to meet that deadline. A 90-day extension was granted, and the district missed that deadline, too.   Colorado City school Superintendent Alvin Barlow has never liked answering questions from reporters about the way he runs his school district, but now he isfacing tough questions from the state authorities about the finances of the school district that critics say is completely controlled by Colorado City's all-powerful polygamist prophet Warren Jeffs.   "If the allegations are true, the situation has become totally dysfunctional and and there needs to be a receiver appointed because it’s not being governed in a rational way now," said State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne.     Read more

Polygamists seek tax hike

Schools already face financial allegations

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 25, 2004

Already facing questions about how they spent state money, officials in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamous community want to raise an additional $1.5 million through a special bond election this fall.   The governing board of the Colorado City Unified School District passed a resolution three weeks ago authorizing the Nov. 2 special bond election.   The measure would give wide spending discretion to the school board, which already is being audited by the state for questionable financial policies, including the purchase of a $220,000 airplane.   "Any district that wants to go ahead with a bond election should at least be in fiscally good standing with the State Department of Education and the auditor general," said Mike File, superintendent of Mohave County schools and a longtime critic of the Colorado City school district.   "These guys certainly are not anywhere close to being in good fiscal standing."   Like everything in the twin communities of Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, the school board is controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.     Read more

Colorado City schools should trim the fat

IN OUR VIEW The Spectrum Originally published Monday, August 30, 2004

The Colorado City School District remains under the microscope of Arizona investigators after the district missed the second of two deadlines to report spending for the 2003 fiscal year.   According to published reports, the district stands to lose about 10 percent of its funding, which could reach into the $400,000 range.  Such a loss could result in the loss of a significant number of jobs and could hurt the education of children attending the public school system there.   No explanation has been given for the tardy reports.  But clearly something is wrong in the district if routine reports are not being filed -- at the very least a problem with internal procedures.   Unfortunately, the children who will be harmed by the smaller funding are largely not members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which holds polygamy as one of its tenets.  The children remaining in the school system are mostly children who don't follow the FLDS doctrine and, therefore, don't consider the church's president, the elusive Warren Jeffs, to be their prophet.   District officials have to do a couple of things to benefit the students under their care.     Read more

Polygamous community cancels special bond election for schools

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published August 30, 2004

Officials in Colorado City, home of the nation's largest polygamous community, have canceled an emergency bond election intended to raise $1.5 million for a public school system already under scrutiny for its spending policies.   "All I know is that a person from Colorado City came in to my office and notified me that they did not meet some kind of deadline and they cannot hold the election," said Allen Tempert, director of elections for Mohave County.   Tempert said he was notified of the cancellation late last week shortly after The Arizona Republic reported the Colorado City Unified School District had filed papers to hold the election in November.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office formally notified state education officials Aug. 20 that the school district failed to meet legal deadlines for reporting how it spent state and federal funds last year.   At their next board in late September, education officials have the power to withhold up to 10 percent of the district's funding until the reporting guidelines are met.   Besides failing to meet reporting deadlines for last year's spending, the Colorado City school district is the subject of a broader audit requested 13 months ago by Tom Horne, state superintendent of public education.     Read more

Colorado City funds may be withheld

The Associated Press Deseret Morning News Originally published Sunday, September 5, 2004

The school board in a polygamist community on the Arizona-Utah line is seeking more money even though authorities say it has failed to account for last year's spending.   The governing board of the Colorado City Unified School District has authorized a Nov. 2 special bond election in hopes of raising $1.5 million.   Meanwhile, the school board is being audited by Arizona authorities for questionable financial policies, including the purchase of a $220,000 airplane.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office said the Colorado City Unified School District failed to file required paperwork on its spending for fiscal 2003.   Education officials traditionally withhold 10 percent of a district's annual funding until the proper accounting is completed.   The Colorado City school district has come under criticism for using state funds to purchase the plane and for hiring 104 employees to run a system with 289 students.   The Arizona Board of Education will decide this month whether to withhold part of Colorado City's budget for failing to meet its 2003 financial reporting deadlines.

Polygamists submit late school-fund data

The Arizona Republic azcentral.com Originally published September 25, 2004

PHOENIX - Officials in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamist community have submitted overdue paperwork about their finances and will avoid possible sanctions from the State Board of Education.   Gregg Rickert, accounting services manager with the Arizona Auditor General's Office, said officials of the Colorado City Unified School District submitted the paperwork Sept. 17, nearly six months after the March 31 deadline.   The paperwork, dealing with spending during the last fiscal year, is required under the Uniform System of Financial Records for Arizona School Districts.   State education officials had scheduled a hearing next Monday to consider withholding 10 percent of the public funding for Colorado City's schools as a penalty for failing to comply with the reporting requirements.     Read more

Colorado City district submits fiscal report

The Associated Press Arizona Daily Sun Originally published September 25, 2004

PHOENIX (AP) -- A school district serving a community dominated by polygamists has submitted a required accounting report, canceling a state board's consideration of a funding penalty, officials said Friday.   The Arizona Auditor General's Office had formally notified the state Board of Education on Aug. 20 that the Colorado City Unified School District failed to meet legal deadlines for reporting how it spent state and federal funds last year.   However, the possibility of penalizing the district was pulled from the board's agenda for Monday's meeting after the district submitted the required report on Sept. 17.   The state board can withhold a portion of a district's funding until the reporting guidelines are met.   Gregory Rickert, a manager for the Auditor General's Office, said the office now will review the report's contents.  If the contents do not comply with state requirements, the district would be notified of the need to comply and face the possibility of a penalty if it does not, he said.   The district has come under criticism for using state funds to purchase an airplane and for hiring 104 employees to run a system with 289 students.

Colorado City schools in financial trouble

The Associated Press KVOA TV Channel 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast October 27, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. A top Mohave County school official says checks from the Colorado City Unified School District are bouncing.   Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File says the district's line of credit was frozen when there were no funds to pay 60 employees.   Colorado City district's superintendent Alvin Barlow says they're trying to increase the cash flow.  Barlow says the district is trying to expedite approvals of federal projects and programs so federal funds can be released.   File says the lack of funds is because United Effort Plan, which owns most of the property in Colorado City, is not paying its tax bills on a timely basis.   Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are heavily populated with members of a polygamist offshoot of the mainline Mormon church.

Colorado City Schools in Financial Trouble

The Associated Press KSL TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast October 27, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) -- Checks from the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing Oct. 18, a top Mohave County school official said.   The district's line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, said Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File.   File signs checks for all public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.   "They (the Colorado City district) have no money in their cash treasurer's account," File was quoted as saying in the Kingman Daily Miner.   Debra Herbert of the Mohave County Attorney's Office civil division confirmed the district "has reached its credit limit."   "We're taking steps to try to increase the cash flow to try to receive advance distribution of state appropriations," said Alvin Barlow, the Colorado City district's superintendent.   Barlow said the district is also trying to expedite approvals of federal projects and programs so federal funds can be released.   The district also is trying to increase the credit line with the bank.     Read more

Bank freezes credit for Colorado City schools after checks bounce

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published October 28, 2004

KINGMAN – The Colorado City Unified School District is out of money.   The school district’s line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said.   File said checks from the school district began bouncing Oct. 18.   "Wells Fargo will not be giving them any more money.  They have no money in their cash treasurer’s account," File said.   The lack of funds is because United Effort Plan, which owns most of the property in Colorado City, is not paying its tax bills on a timely basis, File said.   Colorado City is a polygamous community controlled by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   The school district has a $1.5 million credit line with Wells Fargo Bank, File said.   The lack of funds is affecting payroll checks for some 60 school district employees, including 40 teachers.   "My issue with this is my name is on those checks," said File, who signs checks for all of the public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.     Read more

School district hits money troubles

Colorado City has maxed credit line of $900,000

Staff and wire reports The Spectrum Originally published Thursday, October 28, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. -- Checks from the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing Oct. 18, a top Mohave County school official said.   The district's line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen Monday, when there were no funds to pay district employees, said Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File.   The district maxed its line of credit some time ago, File said, a line of credit totaling approximately $900,000.   File signs checks for all public schools in Mohave County except for the Kingman Unified School District and charter schools.   "They (the Colorado City district) have no money in their cash treasurer's account," File was quoted as saying in the Kingman Daily Miner.   Debra Herbert of the Mohave County Attorney's Office civil division confirmed the district "has reached its credit limit."     Read more

School district populated by polygamist sect owns plane, can't pay employees

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally broadcast October 30, 2004

PHOENIX   An Arizona school district populated with members of a polygamist sect owes thousands of dollars in paychecks to its employees.   However board members of the Colorado City Unified School District can afford a $226,000 dollar plane.   It's the latest fiscal problem for the district.   And both state and county education superintendents have requested an investigation of the district's finances.   Arizona's superintendent of public instruction Tom Horne has denied a district request for an advance of funds.   The district's line of credit was frozen earlier this month, leaving insufficient funds to pay some 60 employees.   Officials say the trust that controls the religious sect and owns most of the property in the district hasn't paid tax bills on a timely basis.

Colorado City can't pay its teachers

By Joseph A. Reaves The Arizona Republic Originally published October 30, 2004

Board members in charge of public schools in the nation's largest polygamous community can afford their own airplane but can't come up with the cash to pay their teachers this month.   The paradox came to light this week when state and county officials confirmed the Colorado City Unified School District has been bouncing payroll checks since Oct. 18.   The cash-flow crisis, caused by the loss of a $950,000 line of credit, is the latest in a series of fiscal setbacks and embarrassments for the district, which oversees schools in a remote stretch of the Arizona strip, on the Arizona-Utah line.   In the past two years, Arizona's education superintendent and the superintendent of Mohave County schools have requested investigations of the district's finances, the state Auditor General's Office has cited district officials for failing to meet deadlines about how they spend their money and critics have questioned why the district spent $226,000 to buy a private airplane.   "This is outrageous," said Mike File, superintendent of schools for Mohave County, a longtime critic of the Colorado City board.   "I kept telling people for years the School Board and the administration up there was a snowball rolling downhill.  Well, now it's come crashing down and it's going to be a hell storm."   Alvin Barlow, superintendent of Colorado City schools, failed to respond to requests from The Arizona Republic for comment.     Read more

Some fringe groups use home-schooling

The Beacon Journal - Akron, Ohio Ohio.com Originally published November 16, 2004

Like the general population, home schooling has its fringe groups.   The following are groups that have been in the news for beliefs that are out of the mainstream and in which home-schooling is a preferred form of education:

National groups

Aryan Nations:

A white supremacist movement with a major enclave in northern Idaho, western Washington and western Montana, plus competing leadership in Potter County, Pa.; Dayton, Ohio; and Louisiana, according to news stories.   Buford Oneal Furrow Jr. spent time in the Washington home of Aryan Nations leaders Debbie and the late Bob Matthews before heading to Southern California in 1999, where he shot women and children at a Southern California Jewish community center.  The Matthewses home-schooled their adopted son, who they insisted must have blond hair and blue eyes.  Confederate flags fly at their Washington ranch.     Read more

Teacher-pay fund still dried up in Colorado City

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published November 18, 2004

KINGMAN – For the second time in recent weeks, the state Department of Education has turned down requests from Colorado City Unified School District officials for money.   The most recent denial came Tuesday, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File said.   "What they are asking for is an advance of money before it is due.  The superintendent (of public instruction Tom Horne) has denied their request until further notice," Department of Education spokeswoman Amy Rezzonico said.  The school district’s credit line with Wells Fargo Bank was frozen on Oct. 25.  School district checks began bouncing Oct. 18, File said.   File initially refused to sign the paychecks but later sent them to school officials when ordered to do so by the county attorney’s office.  File said Colorado City school officials were told to hold the checks until funds are available.     Read more

Arrest the Polyg Prophet Now!

What are authorities waiting for? Pedophile Warren Jeffs has looted school coffers and is on the run

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published November 25, 2004

Colorado City school superintendent Alvin Barlow meets me inside the hallway of the public school district's crumbling administration building with an armed Colorado City cop at his side.   Arizona's senior school administrator is quivering with rage. He's extremely unhappy to see me.   Barlow ignores my greeting, abruptly turns and walks down a hallway toward a meeting room where two years ago I began the tedious task of poring through thousands of pages of the school district's financial records.   I follow him, with the cop a few steps behind. Barlow silently places two black notebooks containing district meeting minutes and agendas for the last 10 months on a table for me to review.   As he turns to walk away, I ask him the question everyone in this isolated town north of the Grand Canyon wants him to answer:   "Why are the school district's payroll checks bouncing?"   Barlow ignores my question and walks out of the room.   He doesn't need to say anything.  I already know the answer.     Read more

Colorado City schools start honoring paychecks

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published December 6, 2004

KINGMAN, Ariz. The Colorado City Unified School District has started honoring paychecks of employees.   That after receiving three-quarters of a (m) million dollars in project and grant money.   The district ran out of money and had failed to meet deadlines to report how school funds were spent.   As a result, about 60 employees of the far northwestern Arizona school district had been unable to cash their paychecks since October 18th.   But Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File says employees are now able to cash them.

Horne wants to take over district

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published December 7, 2004

Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne said Monday that he will push for a new law that would allow the state to take over "grossly mismanaged" school districts and named Colorado City Unified as the first target.  Colorado City Unified is a 350-student district in northern Arizona, which started bouncing teacher paychecks in October despite owning its own private airplane.   "I think people are shocked," said Horne, who plans to ask state lawmakers for help when they reconvene in January.   "There needs to be a mechanism to allow a court to appoint a receiver if the district is completely dysfunctional."   Attorney General Terry Goddard said Monday that his office could find no law allowing the state to appoint a trustee or receiver for Colorado City Unified.  Goddard said he would like to see the State Board of Education take charge of the district temporarily and keep classes open for students.     Read more

Colorado City school bailout

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Wednesday, December 8, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Teachers in the now infamous polygamous town of Colorado City will be paid their salaries through a one and a half million dollar bail-out by the Arizona Risk Retention Trust, which is the insurance carrier for roughly 98-percent of the school districts in the state according to county superintendent Mike File.   File said the bailout agreement comes with some strict requirement to be imposed on the school board in Colorado City.   "There will be a consultant placed in the district," said File.  "The administration and board must adhere to and listen to their recommendations to get them back on track."   File said that one of the first requirements would be for the district to sell the Cessna 210 aircraft they own.   The agreement ends a six-week stretch in which teachers in the district have not been paid.

Teacher paychecks in polygamous school district again honored

The Associated Press East Valley Tribune Originally published December 19, 2004

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A school insurance company has agreed to back the paychecks of teachers and staff at the financially troubled school district in the polygamous town of Colorado City, Ariz., on the Utah border.   Payroll checks began to bounce in mid-October after the school district maxed out its credit limit at Wells Fargo and expected federal funds were slow in arriving, said Jeffrey Jessop, the district's business manager.   District employees can now endorse their payroll checks over to the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, which will then honor the checks and hold the warrants for future payment by the school district.   Jessop said declining enrollment and a poor tax base put the district in financial trouble.   Further, a legislative change in the formula funding a rapidly declining enrollment coffer - which kept the school running - will cost the district at least $70,000 this year.   School board president F. Lee Bistline said he believes the district's assessed property values were the lowest in the state of Arizona.     Read more

County may crack down on school district spending

By Jim Seckler Mohave Daily News Originally published December 22, 2004

KINGMAN -- The Mohave County Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting Wednesday to discuss changing a line of credit agreement involving the Colorado City Unified School District.   The county and Wells Fargo entered into an agreement in 2000 for a line of credit with the school district.   Under discussion today is amending the agreement to convert the revolving line of credit to a non-revolving line of credit, Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Deborah Herbert said.   That would mean any non-restricted money would go first to pay off the line of credit, which currently is $958,000.   Non-restricted funding is money raised from sources such as property taxes for the school district. Restricted funding is federal or state grants specifically earmarked for district.   Herbert said Wells Fargo believes the school district will not pay off its line of credit by June 30, 2005 when the agreement expires.   A non-revolving line of credit would not allow the school district to re-borrow additional money without paying off the existing line of credit first.     Read more

Bank wants to shut off credit to school district

By Caleb Soptelean Kingman Daily Miner Originally published December 22, 2004

KINGMAN – Wells Fargo Bank wants to end a credit line offered to the Colorado City Unified School District.   The Mohave County Board of Supervisors were to consider the request in a special meeting set for this morning.   The bank is used by the county treasurer’s office.   "Their desire is to stop making new advances (to the school district)," said Deborah Herbert, a civil division attorney with the Mohave County Attorney’s Office.   The official request is to convert a revolving line of credit to a non-revolving line of credit.   This would result in the bank no longer making advances to the school district, Herbert said.  The remaining balance would then be paid off as tax money comes in.   The school district has a $958,000 line of credit with Wells Fargo Bank, but the credit line was frozen two months ago when school district employees’ checks bounced.

Line of credit dries up

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published December 23, 2004

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – The Colorado City Unified School District is being forced to become thriftier.   The Mohave County Board of Supervisors met this morning and amended a credit agreement between Wells Fargo Bank and the district.   According to Chief Civil Deputy County Attorney Deborah Herbert, this means that the district must now satisfy the outstanding debt of over $630,000 before they can borrow any more.   "Obviously the district is facing some financial difficulties," said Herbert.  "The bank looks at the cash flow and felt uncomfortable with whether the district would be able to pay them off if they continued to keep it at the maximum line of credit."   This latest step comes on the heels of the Arizona Schools Risk Retention Trust stepping in to purchase warrants guaranteeing teachers in the district would be paid.

Panel backs new power for state

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast February 2, 2005

PHOENIX A divided House committee has endorsed a bill proposed in response to recent financial troubles of a polygamist community's school district whose teachers went unpaid.   The proposal by Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is a response to troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The bill was endorsed by the House Committee on K-12 Education today.   It would give the state Board of Education the power to appoint a receiver to run districts deemed to be insolvent or grossly mismanagement.   The committee's vote was 7-to-3, though some members who voted for the bill did so after voicing strong concerns that it goes too far.

Read the above mentioned Arizona House of Representatives Bill - HB 2417

ARIZONA STATE SENATE FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1476

school districts; financial mismanagement

Read this Fact Sheet Report

Colorado City schools under spotlight

The Associated Press KVOA News 4 - Tucson Originally published February 23, 2005

PHOENIX A legislative committee today endorsed a bill that could allow a state takeover of Colorado City's school system as a senator said the polygamist community needs to stop victimizing young women.   The Senate K-12 Education Committee voted 6-to-2 for a bill to allow the state Board of Education to request court appointment of a receiver of grossly mismanaged or insolvent districts.   The bill and a similar one pending in the House are reactions to recent financial troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The district's teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.   Superintendent Alvin Barlow unsuccesfully urged the committee to reject the bill and he defended the district.  He blamed an enrollment plunge that occurred when polygamist sect members put their children into home and private schools.   Senator John Huppenthal said state funding of Colorado City's school system props up the community's economy and that the real issue is the victimization of young women.

Colorado City schools in spotlight at Legislature

By Paul Davenport Mohave Daily News Originally published Thursday February 24, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) - A legislative committee endorsed a bill that could allow a state takeover of Colorado City's school system as a senator said the polygamist community needs to stop victimizing young women.   The Senate K-12 Education Committee voted 6-2 for a bill backed by Attorney General Terry Goddard to allow the state Board of Education to request court appointment of a receiver for grossly mismanaged or insolvent districts.   The Senate bill (SB1476) and a similar House bill (HB2417) supported by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne are reactions to the recent financial troubles of the Colorado City Unified School District.   Colorado City and neighboring Hildale, Utah, are dominated by members of the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a splinter offshoot of the mainline Mormon church, which disavowed polygamy in 1890 and excommunicates those who practice plural marriage.   The Colorado City district's teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money - a development which critics blamed on a bloated workforce and purchases that included a $220,000 airplane.   During Wednesday's Senate hearing, one committee member asked Superintendent Alvin Barlow whether the district pays at least some school bus drivers more than starting teachers.     Read more

Polygamist Leader Drives Public School into Deep Financial Trouble

KSL TV Channel 5 KSL.com Originally broadcast March 13, 2005

Accusations are swirling around a public school on the Utah-Arizona border.   There are stories of financial mismanagement and corruption stemming from domination by a fanatical polygamist leader.   John Hollenhorst has returned from that controversial community and joins us with details.   The polygamist community sprawls on both sides of the border.   The school serves students from both states, but Arizona officials are taking the lead and may step in.   They say the public school has been badly mismanaged into a deep financial crisis.   The majority of community residents are followers of Warren Jeffs, a fundamentalist prophet who's taken an increasingly firm grip.   He triggered the financial crisis by ordering his followers to take kids out of the school.  Since then the problem has deepened.   Arizona officials say the school overspent its budget by 1.2 million in the last 20 months.   That's partly because of allegedly wasteful purchases such as a half-dozen Ford Excursions and a Cessna aircraft.   There are also accusations that school staff faithful to Jeffs have diverted school vehicles, equipment and supplies to personal or church use.     Read more

Public School in Polygamist Town at Center of Controversy

John Hollenhorst Reporting KSL TV Channel 5 Originally broadcast March 13, 2005

Accusations of mismanagement and corruption are swirling around a public school on the Utah-Arizona border, and critics say it stems from domination by a fanatical polygamist leader.   Arizona lawmakers are debating bills to allow a state takeover for schools in financial crisis.  It's prompted by the public school in the polygamist community of Colorado City, which gets students and taxes from both sides of the border.   The Colorado City Public School overspent its budget by $1.2 million in less than two years, Arizona authorities say.  They've looked into a host of irregularities.   Mike File, Mohave County, Ariz. School Superintendent: "Supplies and materials and furniture that were purchased but can't be found."   Critics say the root of the problem is that most of the community is loyal to Warren Jeffs, a polygamist prophet with a tightening grip.   Gary Engels, Mohave County, Ariz. Investigator: "Everything he says and does, according to him, comes from God."   The school crisis began four years ago when Jeffs ordered his followers to take kids out of the public school.  Enrollment plummeted, causing a steep drop in tax funding.  At the time Richard Holm was a Jeffs follower.   Richard Holm: "He's so driven, so supercharged with the idea that he's got to purify a people and purify himself, that I think he borders on insanity in many cases."     Read more

County school official slaps MCC recall effort

By Jena Scheuneman Mohave Daily News Originally published March 24, 2005

FORT MOJAVE - "Bull" is what Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File called accusations made about two Mohave Community College board members who are involved in a recall attempt.   File, guest speaker at Thursday's Mohave Mesa Kiwanis meeting, spoke on several issues related to education in Mohave County.   File said he is concerned about the spending practices of one Mohave County school district.   "I can tell you in today's times, where budgets are running about 88 percent just on staff salaries, there isn't a whole lot of frivolous spending that can take place beyond that," he said.   "And I can say, of the 12 districts in this county, 11 of them are fighting tooth and nail, right down to the end to keep budgets in line and there is one that just sort of does their own thing.  If the law - from the governor and the attorney general's office on down - if they want to start laying the hammer on Colorado City, at some point it's up to them.  Because who it affects is all of us, the taxpayers."   Colorado City and its neighbor across the Arizona-Utah state line, is a polygamous community.   File called the budgeting and bookkeeping practices in the Colorado City school district "outrageous."   He compared the student-staff ratio of the district to that of Chloride's district.  In Chloride, there were 300 students and 24 staff members.  In Colorado City, there are 259 children and 170 staff members on the payroll.  The district continually runs over budget, writing checks for much more than there are funds to cover.     Read more

School district legislation

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published March 24, 2005

MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. – Lack of power to regulate problem school districts has prompted new proposed legislation.   In response to problems associated with the Colorado City Unified School District, Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File has worked with Arizona superintendent Tom Horn on some new legislation.   "I worked with Tom Horn on developing legislation that would make the county school superintendent offices receivers in those districts that do that type of stuff," said File.  "It was moving along quite nicely and then it took a back seat to the budget stuff."   File said the failure of the Arizona Risk Retention Trust to have any effect on the improper use of funds in Colorado City is one of the events that prompted him to look to new legislation to correct these problems.

Politics killing district rescue

Bill for takeover of schools falters

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published April 16, 2005

A political fight over when and how the state should take over a mismanaged school district could kill a bill designed to prevent the financial collapse of a northern Arizona district.   In October, the Colorado City Unified School District began bouncing teacher paychecks despite buying its own airplane.   For more than three years, the 350-student district hasn't paid teachers and vendors on a consistent basis and has missed state and Mohave County deadlines to account for its spending.   Unlike a corporation, the Arizona Attorney General's Office said, teachers and vendors can't force a school district into bankruptcy, and the state has no authority to push it into court.   The district, along the Arizona-Utah line, is $1.5 million in debt at 6 percent interest to the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust, a corporation that insures Arizona schools, said Jim Mullen, administrator of the trust.  The Retention Trust has been covering checks to prevent lawsuits, Mullen said.   The Colorado City District School Board is expected to vote next month to raise property taxes to pay back the debt, said Michael File, Mohave County school superintendent.   "They keep spending and spending and spending, and no one up there is going to hold them accountable," File said.   The Attorney General's Office found itself powerless to shut down Colorado City Unified or put it into receivership.  It consulted with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and other education leaders this fall and created legislation to change that.   The proposal passed the House and Senate, but lawmakers decorated the proposal with all sorts of new amendments and language.   Now the once-harmonious creators of the proposal are fighting over exactly when, why and how the state can take over a district.   It's a fight that could sink the bill.     Read more

Blunted reforms

School bill to battle polygamous cult needs resharpening

Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published April 19, 2005

The sword was sharp.  It was a bill to allow the state to take over a corrupted school district being run for the profit of a bunch of polygamists in northern Arizona.   But the blade was dulled by unnecessary changes.  The result could leave the cultist polygamists laughing once again at the inability of law-abiding, child-cherishing Arizonans to do anything against a foul and perverse lifestyle.   How foul?   Women are considered property.  Girls are married off as young teens to old men who have multiple wives.   Young men are driven away.  A lawsuit charges the cult's leader, "Prophet" Warren Jeffs, with raping his young nephew in God's name.   How corrupt?   The polygamous cult calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints controls the Colorado City District School Board, which bought a $220,000 private plane while going more than $1.5 million in debt and issuing rubber checks to its teachers.   Ordinarily, angry voters would oust school board members who behaved that way.  But in Colorado City, cult members vote the cult's ticket.     Read more

Remedy is possible in cases like Colorado City schools

Opinions The Arizona Republic Originally published April 23, 2005

Regarding "Blunted reforms" (Editorial, Tuesday): Many people were shocked as it became clear how dysfunctional was the Colorado City school district, that no branch of government had any power to do anything about it.   I proposed a bill for consideration by the Legislature.  Many technical parts of the bill were prepared by the Arizona Attorney General's Office, which did an excellent job.   The educational judgments contained in the proposed bill were the responsibility of the Department of Education.   The proposed bill was submitted in the House of Representatives.  A number of education groups sought to water down the bill.  One of the groups is under strict orders from its constituency to oppose any reduction in local powers, no matter how meritorious the need.   The lobbyist for the attorney general, now acting in a political capacity, quarterbacked this group, which held a number of meetings to prepare a watered-down version of the bill, without seeking any input from the Department of Education on education policy issues.  The original bill called for appointment of a receiver to operate a school district so that students' education would not suffer in the case of "systemic and egregious mismanagement of the school district's finances, financial records or other duties."   The watered-down version limited this to "financial" issues.  The next extreme case that we have will be unpredictable.     Read more

School accountability accounting

By Neal McCluskey The Washington Times Originally published April 24, 2005

"Public accountability" is what we get from public schools, and what we would lose if parents could choose their child's school, especially private schools.   Government schools, we're essentially warned, are all that stand between us and academic anarchy akin to philosopher Thomas Hobbes' "state of nature," a "war ... of every man against every man" in which life is "nasty, brutish, and short."   But public accountability has failed to erect a wall around the state of nature.   Instead of keeping corruption and marauders at bay, poor parents and their children, as well as taxpayers who pay for the schools, have been locked into failure and corruption.  Every day, around the country, the news makes this obvious.  Consider just a few recent examples:   The Arizona Republic April 19 ran an editorial about the Colorado City, Ariz., school district, where a "polygamous cult calling itself the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints controls the Colorado City District School Board, which bought a $220,000 private plane while going more than $1.5 million in debt and issuing rubber checks to its teachers."     Read more

Senate rejects broad grounds for takeovers of school districts

Mohave Valley News Tri-State Online Originally published Thursday, April 28, 2005

PHOENIX (AP) - Breaking a logjam on an issue arising from a polygamist community's troubled school district, the Senate voted Thursday to limit the possible grounds for state takeovers of dysfunctional districts.   The Senate voted 20-8 to allow the appointment of receivers only for financial mismanagement, rejecting a proposal that also would have allowed takeovers for such reasons as failing to hire certified teachers or have students take a state-required test.   The bill (HB2417) now awaits a formal Senate vote.  Passage would send it back to the House for consideration of changes made by the Senate.   State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne has pressed for broader grounds for the state Board of Education to appoint receivers to run districts, while the Arizona School Boards Association and other education groups as well as Attorney General Terry Goddard wanted to limit the grounds to financial mismanagement.   The legislation is a reaction to problems experienced by the Colorado City Unified School District.  Its teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money - a development which critics blamed on a bloated work force and purchases that included a $220,000 airplane.     Read more

Receivers OK'd for financially mismanaged districts

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast May 4, 2005

PHOENIX The Legislature has passed and sent Governor Napolitano a bill to allow the state to appoint receivers to take over operation of school districts deemed to be financially dysfunctional.   The bill is a response to the financial troubles of the unified school district serving Colorado City, a polygamist community in a remote area of northern Arizona.   Teachers in the district went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.  Critics blamed the district's financial problems on a bloated work force, among other things.   The House today approved a Senate-passed version of the bill that makes it only allow appointments of receivers of districts for financial mismanagement.   An earlier House-passed version of the bill would have allowed state takeovers under other circumstances.

Bill passes to control mismanaged schools

Broke district in N. Arizona target of law

By Pat Kossan The Arizona Republic Originally published May 6, 2005

Lawmakers approved a bill giving the state power to take over any Arizona school district that "grossly mismanages" its money, and state officials said their first target would be the financially crippled Colorado City Unified District.   In October, the attorney general found himself powerless to shut down Colorado City Unified after the district began bouncing teacher paychecks despite buying its own airplane.   The new law allows the state to appoint a receiver who can fire or suspend a district's superintendent and override a district governing board's decisions and contracts.   The law protects working, licensed teachers from immediate dismissal.   The legislation passed the state Senate and House, and Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said he expects Gov. Janet Napolitano to sign the bill into law.   Goddard called it disappointing that lawmakers didn't add an emergency clause, meaning the law will not take effect until 90 days from the last day of the legislative session.  Goddard said his office would "as quickly as possible" petition the Arizona State Board of Education to appoint a receiver to take over Colorado City Unified.   For three years, the 350-student district at the Arizona-Utah line hasn't paid teachers or vendors on a consistent basis and has missed state and Mohave County deadlines to account for its spending.     Read more

County may take over school district

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 7, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – A bill passed by Arizona lawmakers would allow the Mohave County School Offices to take over the Colorado City Unified School District.   According to county superintendent Mike File, he has been in contact with the Attorney General’s Office and with the state superintendent Tom Horne about what would happen if Gov. Janet Napolitano signs the bill.   File said once the bill is signed it won’t go into effect for 90 days and then it will be up to Horne as to whether or not the county will become in charge of the district as receivers.   A part of the bill taken out that File is disappointed with is the removal of the entire school board.   "The board will stay in tact but according to the Attorney General’s office whatever recommendations that the county school superintendent makes they have to approve," stated File.   File said he has been trying for five years to get something passed to fix the problems in the Colorado City School District.

County’s preliminary plan

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Tuesday, May 10, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – With the reality setting in that the Mohave County School Offices could soon take over the Colorado City Unified School District, they have come up with a preliminary plan.   "Our first plan is to go in and have a board meeting recommending that the administrative staff be terminated," said county superintendent Mike File.   According to File, the next step would be to replace the building principal because he is reportedly never at the school.   File added that there would have to be cuts on the staff side, but that couldn’t be done right away.   "There have been no evaluations done so that will be a lengthy process," said File.   The bill to allow this "takeover" has passed the House and Senate and is awaiting the signature of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano.

Bill may help polygamist town's school district function

The Associated Press Tucson Citizen Originally broadcast May 11, 2005

PHOENIX - Gov. Janet Napolitano says she hopes a bill she has signed into law will allow state officials to clean up financial troubles of a school district serving a northern Arizona polygamist community.   Napolitano on Monday signed a bill (HB2417) passed last week by the Legislature to allow the state to appoint receivers to take over operation of school districts deemed to be financially dysfunctional.   The bill (HB2417) is a response to the financial troubles of the unified school district serving Colorado City, located in a remote area of northwestern Arizona north of the Grand Canyon.   Teachers went unpaid for two months last year because the district ran out of money.  Critics blamed the district's financial problems on a bloated work force, among other things.   "I hope it has a significant impact," Napolitano said Wednesday.  "I think it finally gives the Department of (Education) and hopefully the attorney general some authority to go in there and clean up that situation and take care of that district."     Read more

School Superintendent moving on schools

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 13, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File is embracing a new law allowing state officials to move against financially troubled and mismanaged school districts.   He said the law signed Monday by the Governor has statewide application, but was crafted to target the Unified School District in the north Mohave County community of Colorado City.   Napolitano said the law gives the Department of Education and the Attorney General the authority to act on problems in the Colorado City District.   "From the conversations I've had with the AG's office is that as soon as that law goes into effect (early August) they're going to be called to the state and in front of the state school board and placed in receivership," File said.  "I have been asked to be that receiver."   File said that, prior to passage of the law, state and local officials were powerless to address the abuses he said he has monitored in the Colorado School District for years.  He said the district has an absurd number of personnel considering its student population, and that administrators mismanage and misallocate resources.   "My first plan is that those folks will have to be terminated," File said.  "I've been watching those guys in action for five years and they've proven their incompetence."     Read more

Education Reclamation

A new state law wrests control of Colorado City schools away from polygamist zealots

By John Dougherty Phoenix New Times Originally published Thursday, May 19, 2005

Much to my amazement and delight, Arizona has finally delivered a powerful blow to the fundamentalist Mormon polygamist theocracy that controls all aspects of public and private life in Colorado City.   On May 9, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano quietly signed into law a bill that will allow state education officials to take over the Colorado City Unified School District from religious leaders who control the school board and key administrative posts.   While Napolitano signed the bill into law, she did little to advance the legislation that almost died when state school superintendent Tom Horne backed a competing bill.  But persistent lobbying by Democratic Attorney General Terry Goddard and strong support from Republican Senators Toni Hellon and Linda Gray led to passage of the bill just days before the Legislature adjourned on May 13.   The law marks a historic transition in the state's half-century of complacency toward the nation's largest polygamist society based in this isolated community abutting the Utah border, a few miles south of Zion National Park.   For the first time in Colorado City's turbulent 70-year history, the school district will be operated outside the complete control of members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a breakaway sect from the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church.   "I think this is great," says Benjamin Bistline, a former FLDS member who is an authority on the history of the polygamous community.  "It's something that should have happened 20 years ago."   Enactment of the law is also testament to the importance of another statute, the Arizona Public Records Law.  I relied heavily on the public records law to pry loose thousands of pages of Colorado City school district financial records that revealed in stark detail a well-entrenched pattern of corruption.   The public records showed that the FLDS leaders abused the school district to provide unneeded jobs, new vehicles, credit cards, school supplies and other perks to help church members support their huge polygamous families.     Read more

A visit to Colorado City

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 19, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – Local School and state officials will be visiting Colorado City.  Mohave County School Superintendent Mike File and State Representatives Trish Groe and Nancy McClain will be in Colorado City today.  According to File the purpose of the visit is to address concerns about possible changes to the Colorado City School system.   File said that teachers are concerned about possibly losing their jobs.   "It wouldn’t be tough removing the Administrative staff which needs to be done but like I say those teachers you can’t just go in there with a broad based pen and just swipe everybody out," said File.   These concerns have come about after a bill was passed last week to allow the state to take control of school districts that are in financial trouble.

Superintendent addresses concerns

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published Saturday, May 21, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – A visit to Colorado City left concerned teachers a little more at ease.  County Superintendent Mike File and Representatives Trish Groe and Nancy McClain visited Colorado City on Thursday to address the concerns of the teachers and community as a whole.  Superintendent File said that the meeting went well and some major concerns were addressed.   "Those teachers up there they should be applauded," said File.  "They stuck through this getting their faces and careers and names bashed in and they stuck through it for those kids."   File went on to state that the changes to the Colorado City school system were going to be a monumental task but will improve the lives of all involved.

State seizes records in probe of polygamist community's school district

By Paul Davenport The Associated Press The Arizona Republic Originally published May 24, 2005

Authorities on Tuesday served a search warrant and seized financial records from a school district in a northern Arizona polygamist community, Attorney General Terry Goddard said.   Goddard said boxes of financial records, other documents and computers were seized as part of a 2-year-old criminal investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the Colorado City Unified School District.   Goddard also said he has instructed his staff to prepare to ask the state Board of Education to appoint a receiver to oversee the district.   Gov. Janet Napolitano on May 9 signed into law a bill allowing the state Board of Education to put a district into receivership for financial mismanagement.   Goddard and state Superintendent of Public Instruction sought the receivership legislation, which will take effect in August, because of the Colorado City district's financial troubles.   "We drafted this legislation to ensure children receive the education they need and deserve," Goddard's statement said.   "I am taking steps to make sure children do not suffer for the financial mismanagement of a school district."     Read more

Colorado City school files seized

Officials stage raid after law is passed on mismanagement

By Nancy Perkins Deseret Morning News Originally published May 25, 2005

ST. GEORGE — Arizona officials in a dramatic midmorning raid on Tuesday seized computers, records and files from the Colorado City Unified School District.   Officials with the Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Mohave County Sheriff's Office arrived around 10 a.m. with a no-knock warrant, about 10 vehicles and a U-Haul truck, said Colorado City police marshal Sam Roundy.   "They came in like a SWAT team.  I thought it was overkill," said Roundy.   "We knew they were coming about 15 minutes before they got here when they drove through Apple Valley.  That's when we started getting lots of phone calls asking us why all these cop cars were coming into town."   Alvin Barlow, superintendent of the Colorado City school district, was not available for comment late Tuesday.  The move to confiscate records at the district office comes on the heels of a new law passed by the Arizona Legislature last month.   Ariz. HB 2417 allows the state to take over a financially mismanaged school district, a charge that has been leveled against Barlow and the Colorado City school district.     Read more

Arizona agents make raid on Colorado City school offices

Officers seek to ensure preservation of records amid finance investigation

By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally published May 25, 2005

COLORADO CITY - During a nine-hour search at the Colorado City Unified School District administration office Tuesday, agents from the Arizona Attorney General's Office packed up computers, file boxes and even beer cans confiscated from the office and district vehicles.   Curious bystanders looked on as the agents carried items from the school and cars.   The community is dominated by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which teaches polygamy as part of its doctrine.   Arizona Highway Patrol troopers and members of the Mohave County Sheriff's Office provided security while the confiscated materials were placed in a 28-foot U-Haul truck.   School superintendent Alvin Barlow, school district business manager Jeffrey Jessop and assistant business manager Oliver Barlow looked on while the activity took place.   According to a press release, Attorney General Terry Goddard said his office has been investigating reports of possible financial mismanagement at the school for the past two years.   "We executed the search warrant today in an effort to be sure the records are not at risk of being destroyed, removed or altered if the district is placed in receivership and to help determine if any wrongdoing has occurred," Goddard said.   The search warrant and its related documents have been sealed by the Superior Court and remain confidential.   All the items seized during the execution of the search warrant were taken to Flagstaff for processing.     Read more

Arizona authorities cracking down on leaders of polygamist community

The Associated Press KOLD News 13 - Tucson Originally broadcast May 26, 2005

PHOENIX Arizona authorities are trying to squeeze religious leaders out of a community of polygamists along the state's border with Utah.   Armed with a search warrant, authorities seized boxes of financial records, other documents and computers Tuesday as part of a two-year-old criminal investigation into alleged financial mismanagement of the Colorado City Unified School District.   The sect and its estimated six-thousand members control the school district, municipal government and most property in the isolated towns of Colorado City and Hildale, Utah.   Arizona lawmakers recently passed a bill enabling the state to take control of school districts that are insolvent or suffer from mismanagement.   The law authorizes the Arizona Board of Education to appoint a receiver who can fire administrators and overrule decisions of elected trustees.

School Search Warrants Served

e-Press Tri-State News Network Originally published May 26, 2005

COLORADO CITY, Ariz. – State authorities served search warrants Tuesday at the offices of the Unified School District in the north Mohave County community of Colorado City.   Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said boxes of financial records; other documents and computer equipment were seized.   "For the past two years, my office has been investigating reports of possible financial mismanagement in the Colorado City School District," Goddard said.  "We executed the search warrant in an effort to be sure the records are not at risk of being destroyed, removed or altered if the district is placed in receivership and to help determine if any wrongdoing has occurred."   Goddard said his office is preparing to petition the State Board of Education to place the district in receivership under recently passed legislation that was crafted with Colorado City in mind, though it can also be used in other districts that are allegedly mismanaged, financially troubled or both.   "We drafted this